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2024 Free Agents - Jalen Smith

Summary
The Suns surprised a lot of people on draft night in 2020 by selecting Smith 10th overall. Although he had some mid-first round pick buzz, Smith was also seen by some as a late-first or early-second round prospect. Especially with Devin Vassell and Tyrese Haliburton still on the board, many people, myself included, thought the Suns would select one of those two players. While the Suns had success in 2019 by selecting Cam Johnson 11th, which was considered a reach by almost everyone, the success was not duplicated with Smith.

Smith wasn't able to earn minutes for the Suns early on. During his rookie season, he played less than 100 minutes of non-garbage time, according to Cleaning the Glass. However, after the Suns dealt with some injuries to their bigs early in the '21-'22 season, Smith was able to show some of what made him interesting coming out of the draft, and continued to do so after being traded to Indiana. Seen as a big that had potential to protect the rim and stretch the floor, Smith has shown some of that ability, having a decent block rate and hitting 35% from three on 61% overall true shooting since joining the Pacers, including 43% from three in '23-'24.

At 6'10", Smith is not big for a center, and his thin frame makes it harder to play him at that position. Defensively he'll likely struggle to defend on the perimeter though if he has to play the four, so he's a bit of a tweener in that regard. He does at least have good rebounding rates on both ends of the court.

Smith will still only be 24 years old when he hits free agency in 2024. I'm not sure he's shown enough to prove he belongs in a rotation on a competitive team, but I think he has shown enough to stick around in the league. He fell out of the rotation in the playoffs for the Pacers, losing minutes to Isaiah Jackson. Even if he doesn't get great offers, he may opt out and hit free agency just so he can put himself in a better situation.
 
Cap Considerations
Smith has an $5.4 million player option for 2024-2025, and if he declines that option he will be an unrestricted free agent with a $9.6 million cap hold and full Bird Rights, meaning the Pacers will have no restrictions on re-signing him. Since his cap hold is above his likely starting salary, his cap hold is not really relevant, as it will either be replaced by his starting salary if he re-signs with the Pacers, or removed upon signing with another team.

If the Pacers re-sign Smith, his cap hold will be replaced by his starting salary, and the Pacers may still have some cap space available depending on his salary and what happens with their other free agents. There's also a chance that the Pacers operate over the cap in 2024 and retain their own free agents while having the full Non-Taxpayer MLE and the Bi-Annual Exception to add players.

Depending on how close the Pacers are to the luxury tax after free agency (or on how much cap space they need), if Smith is brought back by the Pacers on a multi-year contract they could benefit from frontloading his contract, as it could give them additional flexibility in the future.

If Smith hits free agency, other teams will have multiple ways to sign him as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, or possibly the Taxpayer MLE to sign him. It's unlikely Smith would opt out and settle for the BAE or less.

Potential Teams: Rockets, Pacers, Knicks, Trailblazers, Spurs

Predicted Contract: 2-year, $15 million with the Rockets

Actual Contract: 3-year, $27 million with the Bulls

Smith got a solid contract from the Bulls, and will be their back-up center with Andre Drummond now gone.

Last updated: 7/14/2024

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